DARK SHADOWS FORUMS
Members' Mausoleum => Calendar Events / Announcements Archive => Calendar Events / Announcements '24 I => Calendar Events / Announcements '03 II => Topic started by: ROBINV on September 01, 2003, 03:07:40 AM
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I wanted to tell you how the story of Collinwood was wrapped up in the present day by those actors and actresses who presented us with a wonderful radio-style rendition of RETURN TO COLLINWOOD. The actors "onstage" stood at microphones and read from their scripts while the others sat. When a scene was finished, those actors took their seats and the next actors stood at the mikes to read their lines.
First off, for those wondering, it was mentioned briefly that Barnabas and Julia were off in Hong Kong, together.
Carolyn, now married to (hold down your gorge) Ned Stuart, is the matriarch of Collinwood. Elizabeth is dead (as is Roger), and has left very specific instructions for a seance to be held (presumably to conjure up Liz herself) and for her last will and testament.
Quentin returns home from Peru after a fruitless search for David, who is on an expedition and hasn't returned to Collinwood for 10 years. Maggie, whose husband Joe is deceased, is a nurse-administrator at Windcliff, looking after a silent, motionless Sebastian Shaw. Although she and Quentin seem to have an understanding, she's obviously annoyed that he doesn't confide in her. They have been a couple for a year, but there's been no commitment.
Willie Loomis and his wife, Jessica (portrayed by Marie Wallace) live in the Old House, which now, thanks to Willie, has plumbing and electricity. With Elizabeth's generous help, they own the Blue Whale, which now features karaoke! Willie installs a Jacuzzi (yup) in the Old House basement. When he and Jessica encounter problems with the pipes, he's forced to open a wall in the drawing room to check it out. Inside the wall, he finds a large package and a letter.
Carolyn, who has taken up paining lanscapes as a hobby, astounds Maggie by painting a picture of a gorgeous blonde woman who Maggie doesn't recognize. Angelique appears to Carolyn, urging her to kill everyone else in Collinwood, calling her a "good girl" when she agrees. The audience quickly realizes that Carolyn's hand is being guided by none other than the witch herself, who is apparently seeking to return. She accomplishes this by possessing Carolyn. During the seance, Carolyn, Ned, Quentin, Maggie, Willie and Jessica share the round-table honors, but instead of bringing back Liz, they conjure up Angelique!
The witch herself, now claiming to be Roger's long-lost wife, Cassandra Collins, immediately starts trouble for everyone. She's decided she's been mistreated by Collinwood residents since 1795 and that she and Quentin, both immortal, should rule the manse and dispense with everone else. To blackmail Quentin into agreeing with her plan, she awakens the comatose Sebastian Shaw (who has resided at Windcliff for 10 years) and compels him to steal Quentin's painting, which is what Willie Loomis unearthed behind the wall at the Old House (along with a poignant, sniffle-inducing letter from Barnabas thanking Willie for being so loyal). Shaw knocks poor Jessica unconscious and steals the portrait.
Quentin knows he must get back his painting; if Casangelique makes good her threat to destroy it, he will return to his werewolf state!
Quentin formulates a plan--he will keep Cassangelique "occupied" during an intimate dinner for two while Willie goes to the Collins mausoleum and recovers the painting. Quentin is sure the witch has hidden it there.
In a hilarious scene, a nervous, flashlight-wielding Willie returns to the tomb, where no good has ever happened to him or anyone. He finds the painting, but is forced to confront Sebastian, who is guarding it. Willie applies his flashlight to Shaw's head and makes off with the portrait.
James Storm portrays a professor from the college where Carolyn was his student (or she was a teacher, my mind isn't clear on that point). He unearths information about one Angelique Bouchard that is quite interesting. He also realizes what Carolyn thought was Liz' handwriting in her will was actually Carolyn's--all to promote Angelique's safe return to Collinwood.
Angelique's plan is thwarted. She's furious, of course, but Liz' will gives Cassandra a permanent home in the cottage on the estate, which will surely lead to other problems in the future. Also in her will, Liz confesses to an affair with a man she does not name that produced Victoria Winters! Carolyn bursts into tears when she learns that her own half sister was living under her roof. Liz begs Carolyn to find Vicki, to whom she has left Seacliff, somehow. Liz has also given Willie the Old House and all the property surrounding it.
A woman named Violet Collins--David's wife!--appears at Collinwood. She has all the proper paperwork, but Quentin is puzzled by her maiden name--Chavez! She has control of David's 50 percent interest in Collinwood, and we wonder just what her plans are for the family.
Maggie, all set to turn her back on Quentin because of his refusal to share with her, finally convinces him to tell her the entire truth about himself. He asks her to sit down--for five hours or so--he will tell her everything. We are left with the impression they will end up together, at last, even though she has a brief bout of jealousy over his little dinner with Cassandra (which was just Quentin's way of getting her attention so Willie could steal back his portrait).
I nearly forgot--Donna Wandrey played a hilarious Mrs. Danvers type role. She took over for Mrs. Johnson as housekeeper, and she is one scary gal! You MUST be on time for her meals, or else. When she urges Maggie to leave Collinwood, all but threatening her, we realize that she champions the evil Cassandra Collins and is apparently her helper.
So there are loose ends in RETURN TO COLLINWOOD, and I'm sure I forgot someone/something, but this script, written by David Selby's son, Jamison, was wonderful, filled with humor, warmth, poignancy, wit and joy.
And yes, there was a standing ovation at the end, and everyone applauded wildly upon learning that Liz was Vicki's mother!
Love, Robin
P.S. - This will be made available on tape for those interested in purchasing it. Personal recording and flash photos were forbidden, but I saw some folks taping it anyway, and there were definitely several flashes during the show (from those who can't or won't follow directions).
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Thank you for giving such a detailed account of Return to Collinwood! I have been eager to hear about it, about how everything was wrapped up. It sounds like it was a lot of fun, for the audience and for the actors too. Thanks again, Robin! :-* :)
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wow that was a great story i hope that they filmed it!
jennifer
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Thanks Robin :-*
Was this 'performed' by the aforementioned actors/actresses (I'm assuming sans scenery, as you said 'radio-style').
How was this presented?
Did anyone tape it to purchase?
Patti
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Thanks Robin :-* Was this 'performed' by the aforementioned actors/actresses (I'm assuming sans scenery, as you said 'radio-style').How was this presented?
Did anyone tape it to purchase?Patti
I'd be interested in purchasing this video if it becomes available. Does anyone know?
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Oh, that sounds absolutely wonderful!! :) :) I would have loved to have seen/heard it! Thank you for telling us all about it! :)
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From the last ShadowGram:
* The ONSTAGE SEQUEL PLAY "RETURN TO COLLINWOOD" will be released by MPI later this year. Its world premiere is at the DS Festival convention in Brooklyn over Labor Day weekend.
Thanks for the recap, Robin!
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Carolyn, now married to (hold down your gorge) Ned Stuart
NO! NO!! NO!!!!
That's not only twisted and sick, it's just plain wrong!!
(What terrible hold does RD have over Jamison Selby to force him to write such depravity?!)
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Hi Robin thanks for sharing with us!!!
Wonderful Story!!!
Wish i was there. Love Anne :D ;) :-*
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What a nice recap, Robin! Thanks for posting that. It must have been great to experience that in person.
--Mark
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MB,
Carolyn married to Ned Stuart. Well, I have a theory. Every family has an a**hole in it either by blood or marriage. I guess the Collins family was in need of one and Ned Stuart fit the bill. :P
PS. Robin, thanks so much for the recap.
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Carolyn, now married to (hold down your gorge) Ned Stuart
NO! NO!! NO!!!!
That's not only twisted and sick, it's just plain wrong!!
(What terrible hold does RD have over Jamison Selby to force him to write such depravity?!)
[lol2] [lol2]
Ned is my favorite RD role as he is in the least episodes [lol2]
jennifer
Carloyn was grief-stricken maybe this is the reason :'(but i'd rather see her insane ,as in 1995, than with Ned oh the thought! :o
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Thanks, Robin!
Tell us, did the actors who played their original roles fall back into character vocally?
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Robin,
I know Diana Millay opted to not participate, but did Lisa Richards have a part?
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Response to Midnite:
I didn't see Lisa Richards all weekend, but I wasn't there Saturday, so that could be when she made her appearance. She was NOT in RETURN TO COLLINWOOD, nor was Millay. I don't know why the latter didn't participate.
COLLINWOOD featured Karlen, Selby, Scott, Barrett, Davis, Storm, Wandrey, Wallace, Pennock and Parker. I think that's everyone. It was so enjoyable, I wished I were sitting closer. I confess: When Carolyn read from Liz' will that Vicki was her biological daughter, I started to cry, and so did many in the audience. I can't tell you why, but I was thrilled to tears to hear it!
Roger Davis was not a bombastic pain in the ass like Ned Stuart was, although he did seem to be pawing at Barrett more than was necessary, especially since it was supposed to be a radio show containing little or no touching. Everyone else sounded exactly right, and Selby's Quentin was the man from 1897--wry, witty and caustic. I thought he was right on the money, and his scenes with Cassangelique crackled.
I kept thinking, wistfully, how much I would have loved to see Jonathan Frid and Grayson Hall appear. The latter can't, though I hope she was there in spirit, and Mr. Frid is enjoying the life of a country squire, according to Marie Wallace, in Canada. I was also wondering if they might have David Henesy appear. I can only imagine the standing ovation he would have received from the huge crowd!
Love, Robin
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Thanks for the recap! It sounds pretty good. I'll definitely buy it when MPI releases it.
P.S. - Poor, poor Carolyn! She must've had a bout of insanity or been on something when she married Ned.
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Thank you once again Robin,
Birdie
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The actors went into the studio today to lay down the audio for a cassette/cd release of the play.
The format of the presentation on Sunday was more or less identical to the radio plays David Selby has done with LA Theatre Works.
And someone mentioned crying when Carolyn mentioned VW being her sister and Liz's daughter -- NB was working up real tears too.
Or maybe that was from being pawed constantly by RD. ;D
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I loved the reading! It was just wonderful seeing most of the original cast together again and having them throw themselves into their parts with such gusto. Quentin was his usual, cynical self and Willie funny and rambunctious. I have never seen Nancy Barrett before in person so that was a special treat for me as well. She and everyone else did a great job! The background score also added a nice touch. In my opinion, the reading alone was worth the price of admission and the cost of my hotel room, which, for one person, was not inconsiderable. :) I look forward to that video!
I'm glad to say that I had a lovely weekend even though I missed that first day. My thanks to everyone who organized the event and a friendly "hello" to those whom I had the pleasure of speaking with, a number of which, unfortunately, do not even know about this forum.
[wavey]
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This sounds like a real hoot! I did not realize that Jamison Selby was such a fan of DS. It sounds as if there were a lot of little in-jokes of the sort only a diehard fan would appreciate.
Talking of dying hard, I nauseate at the thought of Ned Stuart getting his paws on Carolyn! In the immortal words of Lucy van Pelt, BLEAH!
I've been slowly unpacking and trying to organize my new home (something of a nightmare in slo-mo), and have been watching some DS episodes from October 1966 that I taped about 2 years ago on Sci Fi and never had the chance to watch. It's been a real treat. I loved Liz's showdown with Burke when he came waltzing in announcing he was going to buy Collinwood. And Mrs. Johnson's introduction at the Collinsport Inn was a scream! I'm still guffawing over Clarice's delivery of Mrs J's line about not being able to rest "as long as evil walks the streets of this town." I think that was a Francis Swann script--great writer.
G.
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NB was working up real tears too.
Or maybe that was from being pawed constantly by RD. ;D
Being constantly pawed by RD would surely drive any woman to tears. [smrtasg]
Talking of dying hard, I nauseate at the thought of Ned Stuart getting his paws on Carolyn! In the immortal words of Lucy van Pelt, BLEAH!
My sentiments exactly. ;)
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With everyone aghast at the thought of Carolyn ending up with Ned Stuart, am I alone in my horror here? Quentin with Maggie? [82b5]
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And Mrs. Johnson's introduction at the Collinsport Inn was a scream! I'm still guffawing over Clarice's delivery of Mrs J's line about not being able to rest "as long as evil walks the streets of this town." I think that was a Francis Swann script--great writer.
Clarice manages to steal the scene in practically all of Mrs. J's early appearances. And in light of how DS would soon go from being merely gothic to supernatural, some of her dialogue (like the line you've quoted) is more telling of what's to come than it was probably intially intended to be. But then I've always seen Mrs. J as the one character around who always seems to be able to pick up on all the craziness around her. She often remarks about how her "feelings" are telling her something is drastically wrong. Some other character generally tells her she's "imagining things" - but both she and the audience know that she never was just "imagining" it...
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Beth is dead. Probably all of Quentin's love interests afterward are also gone. I don't think it's unreasonable for Quentin to be with Maggie. Maybe Angelique's spell never wore off.
With everyone aghast at the thought of Carolyn ending up with Ned Stuart, am I alone in my horror here? Quentin with Maggie? [82b5]
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With everyone aghast at the thought of Carolyn ending up with Ned Stuart, am I alone in my horror here? Quentin with Maggie? [82b5]
I usually have no interest in who-couples-with-whom, but I like the idea of Maggie & Quentin together. To me, Selby & KLS always had spark--even in the most trying of PT episodes.
Quentin needs a woman like Mags: she's honest, upright--and not a ghost or evil. And I think that's just what ol' QC needs...
;D
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Well, personally, I always thought Quentin and Julia were really hot together in their scenes, especially when she's bossing him around during the Grand Douglas period. I just love Connie's novel in which she envisions them, very realistically, as a couple. They both have a certain world-weariness and are beyond the notion of romantic illusions in a way that makes them suit one another (but then, in the episodes currently running on Sci Fi, Quentin displays some phenomenally ga-ga behavior around Daphne).
The other somewhat more negative reason to see Quentin and Julia together is imagining Barnabas' facial expression upon his discovery of the situation. Knowing his usual degree of self-involvement, it would probably be when they've gone to visit him at the Old House to let him know that they're setting a date.
Oooh, just imagining the scene is sending off vibrations!
G.
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See now, I always thought Quentin and Angelique were quite well paired.
MsCriseyde...did you say that the players went to lay down the tracks yesterday to a studio??
(In other words, the performance Robin mentioned was a run-through; not the product we'd be purchasing?)
Patti
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MsCriseyde...did you say that the players went to lay down the tracks yesterday to a studio??
(In other words, the performance Robin mentioned was a run-through; not the product we'd be purchasing?)
Yes, the actors went to a recording studio to record their parts on Monday. Stuart mentioned being there in another thread.
As for the video that was shot during the performance, I have no idea what the plans are there.
Conflicting information seems to abound these days. ;)
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Conflicting information seems to abound these days. ;)
These days?? Isn't conflicting info pretty much de rigueur for DS fandom? [lghy]
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With everyone aghast at the thought of Carolyn ending up with Ned Stuart, am I alone in my horror here? Quentin with Maggie? [82b5]
I always thought Q and M would make a good pair. It seemed a shame that Angelique had to make it happen by a spell; I figured it could have developed naturally!
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I loved Donna Wandry's performace. She seemed to really enjoy playing a bad guy for a change. I'm looking forward to the MPI release of the radio show!
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Robin,
I know Diana Millay opted to not participate, but did Lisa Richards have a part?
At the banquet I heard Diana Millay say she was not asked to be in the play and that she was upset by the slight. I do not know if it was just not that many parts or deliberate. :o
Ldyanne
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Thats not true. She was asked but didn't agree with some of the aspects of her part. So some things were rewritten and Terry Crawford played her part.
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Thanks, CrazyJenny.
LdyAnne, please don't think anyone is disputing your account of what you heard. It's DM that, umm, has even contradicted herself at Fests. ::)
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Thats not true. She was asked but didn't agree with some of the aspects of her part. So some things were rewritten and Terry Crawford played her part.
Can this be true? Millay who once played David's mother slated to play his wife in the sequel? This sounds a bit far-fetched, but considering the perennial absence of a mother during his formative years, maybe having David marry a maternal figure is not so unbelievable after all. A bit weird, though, to say the least! :-
But then again, this is Dark Shadows, after all!
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LdyAnne, please don't think anyone is disputing your account of what you heard. It's DM that, umm, has even contradicted herself at Fests. ::)
Yes, I'm sorry. I didn't at all mean that LdyAnne was lying. Just saying that what she heard (even if it was straight from Diana's mouth) was not the real truth.
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But then again, this is Dark Shadows, after all!
Yes, didn't it also play out that Roger married his grandmother? LOL
Yes, I'm sorry. I didn't at all mean that LdyAnne was lying. Just saying that what she heard (even if it was straight from Diana's mouth) was not the real truth.
Oh, please don't be. That's what I was trying to say too.
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Crawford seemed to have the least familiarity with her lines so i did wonder if she was cast last minute and a few quick rewrites weren't undertaken..
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I reported what I heard. The truth of it is left to others more in the know than I.
LdyAnne
Returning to lurk mode :(
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Returning to lurk mode :(
Oh, please don't do that. I hope you'll continue to take part in any of the discussions that interest you. :)
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Crawford seemed to have the least familiarity with her lines so i did wonder if she was cast last minute and a few quick rewrites weren't undertaken..
Yes, she was a last minute write in. I had an opportunity to speak with Jamison Selby afterwards. Plus, the rehearsal room for this play was on my hotel room floor. So, I got to hear lots of the goings on.
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Returning to lurk mode :(
Oh, please don't do that. I hope you'll continue to take part in any of the discussions that interest you. :)
It was really nice to meet you in person at the Festival LdyAnne, please do continue to post. :) Bob
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Just a quick note to say that I've just added some photographs from the performance -- courtesy of Ben Martin -- to my site's News Page at http://www.collinwood.net/news
There will be a bunch more up once I have time to edit them :)
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Just wanted to note for those who haven't seen them that there are photos from the Return to Collinwood rehearsal, performance, and recording session on Craig Hamrick's Dark Shadows Online site:
http://www.darkshadowsonline.com
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Just wanted to note for those who haven't seen them that there are photos from the Return to Collinwood rehearsal, performance, and recording session on Craig Hamrick's Dark Shadows Online site:
Thanks, C! What a great cast photo. And with Roger Davis hidden, heh. I mean, look at the pic from the performance with him practically on top of Nancy Barrett. It was a radio play, dude! ::)
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What a great cast photo. And with Roger Davis hidden, heh.
I was trying to be good and not say anything about that. ;)
I mean, look at the pic from the performance with him practically on top of Nancy Barrett. It was a radio play, dude! ::)
He was just trying to get a feel for his character (and apparently some of the others as well).
There . . . you made me say it. >:D